BlackHawk Industrial Acquires EF Bailey Industrial Supply

Broken Arrow, Oklahoma — BlackHawk Industrial Distribution, Inc. announced the acquisition of EF Bailey Company, a leading industrial distributor focused in the metal working industry serving the MRO marketplace. EF Bailey, based in Seattle, Washington is the seventh acquisition of BlackHawk Industrial and follows the acquisitions during the past 28 months of Minnesota based - Kendeco, Wisconsin based – Tool Service, Illinois based - Sanders Tools and Supply, Oklahoma - based Duncan Industrial, Arkansas - based Rogers Industrial, and Nebraska - based Fuchs Machinery. With the acquisition of EF Bailey, BlackHawk expands and strengthens its geographical footprint into the Pacific Northwest Region of the U.S. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 1945, EF Bailey is one of the premier industrial distributors of cutting tools, abrasives, fluids and engineered product along with a wide variety of MRO supplies serving end user customers primarily in the markets of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. Bill Scheller, CEO of BlackHawk Industrial said: “We are excited to add the talented employees of EF Bailey as part of our growing family of operating divisions within BlackHawk Industrial. EF Bailey, led by Dan Cornish and Rod Burdge, has a very long history of being a supplier of choice with strong customer and vendor relationships in its local marketplace. We believe that EF Bailey will be further enhanced as part of Blackhawk Industrial as a result of additional operating scale, management resources and a broader product offering. We are also excited to share the combined resources of BlackHawk Industrial with the customer and vendor base of EF Bailey.”

Mr. Scheller also added: “BlackHawk will continue to look for additional U.S. based industrial distributors to acquire as we further build out our business. The addition EF Bailey to the BlackHawk Family continues to add to our business model in so many ways: local leadership, strong technical and value added selling, focus on engineered products, deep supplier support, and a strong team culture. We believe that as a result of our addition of the entire EF Bailey Team and their Pacific Northwest operations, we will further strengthen and complement our recent acquisitions in the Midwest. EF Bailey also offers many services that will be expanded as a part of the BlackHawk Industrial. We believe that the EF Bailey customer base will now have the ability to reach new markets and have access to new locations and a more complete comprehensive vending and other inventory management systems”.

BlackHawk Industrial will look to Dan Cornish and Rod Burdge to continue to lead the EF Bailey Division. The EF Bailey Division will also report to Bob Miller, a SVP of Regional Development at BlackHawk Industrial. Mr. Miller is a valued member of the BlackHawk Industrial commercial leadership team. Bob is well respected in our industry and in the metal working marketplace. Mr. Scheller said: “We look to Bob’s continued regional leadership at BlackHawk and in his ability to impact the regional marketplace. Bob has been tasked to grow the EF Bailey division of Blackhawk Industrial both organically and through future acquisitions in its local marketplace. Our goal is to add additional branches, new sales staff, and to further expand our customer service resources to deepen our penetration in the local markets.”

Austin Kravik, former President and CEO of EF Bailey said: “The entire EF Bailey staff is excited to become the newest member of the expanding BlackHawk Industrial family. We spent the past 2 years watching Bill Scheller build BlackHawk into a new dynamic distributor in the industrial marketplace. As I looked at the culture and leadership style that BlackHawk has built, we believe it matches the direction we have found successful at EF Bailey. As I looked at an ideal transition of ownership of our family owned business at EF Bailey, it was very important to me to find a true steward that would carry on what our employees have built over the years. As a local distributor, I believe that my vendors, customers and the team at EF Bailey will be well served under the support and structure of the BlackHawk Industrial leadership.

About BlackHawk Industrial

BlackHawk Industrial Distribution, Inc. was formed in 2010 by Bill Scheller, former CEO of ORS-Nasco, and Brazos Private Equity Partners, LLC, a leading Dallas-based private equity firm, to implement an active buy-and-build strategy in the highly fragmented, $400 billion industrial distribution market.

Background of Bill Scheller

Bill was most recently CEO of ORS Nasco, one of the largest, pure wholesale distributors of industrial supplies in North America. Bill has held leadership positions for almost 30 years at companies such as Pillsbury, Patterson Companies, as well as ORS Nasco. During nine years at ORS Nasco, Bill provided the overall leadership and direction for the company in North America. ORS Nasco experienced significant revenue and earnings growth, improved operations and working capital efficiency and enhanced its sales and marketing capabilities. These efforts led to the successful sale of ORS Nasco to United Stationers, Inc. in 2007.